One Life to Live Commentary

Current Two Scoops column

I didn't like it, so sue me: The worst of OLTL 2013:
Hey, Two Scoops readers! Let's make a New Year's resolution to be nice… in a few days. This is the Worst of One Life to Live 2013. Come on in and s... Read the column now...

Jared grew up idolizing Asa Buchanan through stories told by the sister of his mother's boyfriend, Pamela Oliver Stuart, who used to be married to Asa. Jared arrived in town and convinced Natalie Buchanan to give him a job at Buchanan Enterprises. He soon swindled Nash Brennan in a game of poker and bought Antonio Vega's shares of Nash's vineyard. It turned out that Nash's wife, Jessica, was responsible for sending Jared to prison when she was inhabited by her alternate personality, Tess. Jared wanted revenge on Jessica, not believing that Tess ever existed.

Those plans were put on hold, however, when Asa suddenly died soon after Jared arrived in town. Jared befriended Asa's widow, Renee, who said Jared reminded her of Asa. She even invited him to move into the mansion. Jared and Natalie were attracted to each other and kissed several times, although Natalie and the rest of the family were suspicious of his motives.

During the reading of Asa's will, the family learned that Asa sired another illegitimate son, but he did not reveal the identity, instead leaving trusted butler Nigel to reveal the identity when the time was right. Jared discovered that David Vickers was the true heir and blackmailed Nigel into convincing the family that Jared was the long-lost son. Jared even swiped a strand of David's hair to pass a DNA test. Jared's true father, Charlie Banks, showed up just as Jared was revealed to be Asa's son, and Jared rejected his father's attempt to get back into his life.

Asa's ex-wife, Pamela, arrived at a shareholders' meeting and, to the surprise of everyone, revealed that she was Jared's mother. In fact, Pamela lied to the family to help make up for the actions of her brother, a violent man who dated Jared's mother, Valerie, after alcoholic Charlie Banks walked out on the family.

After trying to fight their attraction to each other, Jared revealed to Natalie that he was not a Buchanan, after all, and that David Vickers was the true heir. Natalie agreed to keep his secret and they began a secret affair. The truth would come out, however, when Dorian Lord revealed Jared as a fraud during a BE stakeholder meeting and announced she had bought controlling interest in the company. Jared and Natalie subsequently got in a heated argument with Jessica and Nash, who accidentally fell to his death.

With the truth out, Jared attempted to forge a new relationship with his real father, Charlie. But both he and Natalie were on the outs with the Buchanan family, especially Jessica, who blamed them for her husband's death. To get back into Clint Buchanan's good graces, Jared agreed to go to Colombia and retrieve Langston Wilde's uncle, Ray Montez, who was serving time for murder, as part of a plan by Clint to regain ownership of BE. Natalie and Jared argued about this plan just before Jared departed. When Jared returned, Jessica handed him a "Dear John" letter from Natalie, saying that she was breaking up with him and had left town. Little did Jared know that Jessica had reverted to her alternate personality, Tess, and had locked up Natalie in a soundproof room in the basement of the family home, Llanfair.

Tess attempted to seduce Jared, while Natalie watched from a closed-circuit television, but Jared didn't believe that Natalie had left him willingly. Jared kept snooping around, and soon suspected that Jessica had been taken over by Tess. Jared suspected that Tess was behind Natalie's disappearance, and finally got definitive proof when he ran into the contractor who built the secret room at Rodi's Tavern. Jared played dumb around Tess, hoping to get the better of her. Tina finally revealed to Jared that Natalie was in the basement and gave him the key to get into the room. But once Jared found the room and unlocked the door, reuniting with Natalie, Tess walked in and locked them both inside the glass cage. Then she set a bomb to go off, only she didn't let Natalie and Jared know how long they had until the bomb would explode. Tess began to experience abdominal pains, and Natalie tried to convince her to let them out so they could get her to the hospital. But once Natalie mentioned Nash's name, Tess reconsidered and left them to die. Natalie and Jared tried to make the most of the time they had left, even making love as the ticking time bomb waited to go off!

Natalie and Jared eventually were discovered by Viki and Charlie. Charlie managed to grab the bomb that Tess had set to go off and got it outside, just before it exploded, and Natalie and Jared were freed. Natalie confronted Tina and told her to leave town at once in exchange for keeping quiet about her role in keeping them captive. Tina admitted everything to Viki and was banished anyway. Natalie and Jared, meanwhile, tried to make peace with what Jessica's alter had done to them. They began caring for Bree and the new baby Jessica supposedly had given birth to, named Chloe Brennan, while Jessica committed herself to St. Anne's psychiatric hospital to get well. What they didn't realize was that Baby Chloe was in fact Starr and Cole's child, who had been switched with Jessica's stillborn baby by Jessica's alter Bess. Jared got his old job back at Buchanan Enterprises and proposed to Natalie on Christmas Day.

Jessica believed she had a breakthrough when she had a conversation with Bess, who told her that Jessica let Tess out all those months ago because she wanted Natalie and Jared to die. Jessica admitted this to Natalie and Jared, who were understandably upset. Jessica, no longer under the influence of Bess and Tess, was discharged from St. Anne's and returned to Llanfair to discover that Bree felt closer to Natalie than Jessica, since Natalie had been raising Bree and Chloe in Jessica's absence. Natalie challenged Jessica's ability to be a mother, but Jessica pushed back and told Natalie to back off. Jared tried to convince Natalie to move on with her life, but Natalie got suspicious when she discovered a parking ticket in Jessica's wallet from the night of Chloe's birth that revealed that Tess had gone to Llanview Hospital. Based on the time stamp on the ticket, Natalie and Jared figured out that the visit occurred after the baby had been born, which raised Natalie's suspicions even more. Enlisting Rex's help, Natalie and Rex found security camera footage from the hospital that revealed it was Bess, not Tess, who had visited the hospital.

When Jared and Natalie learned that Starr and Cole's baby hadn't died from RH disease as they had been told, they put the pieces together and figured out that a baby switch must have occurred. They gathered DNA evidence from Chloe (fingernail clippings) and Hope (the hair Starr kept in her locket) and had hospital lab technician Kyle Lewis run tests, which confirmed that Starr and Cole's baby was in fact Chloe. Jared and Natalie were torn over what to do, and at one point almost told Jessica the truth, but then they decided that the truth would be too much for Jessica to bear and resolved to keep the secret forever. Jessica seemed to be getting on with her life and was falling for Brody Lovett, although Jared and Natalie disapproved of the relationship because they believed Brody had slept with Gigi while she was with Rex.

Kyle Lewis figured out what was going on after Starr and Cole submitted their own samples and he concluded that the hair they submitted couldn't have been from their baby. He summoned Natalie and Jared to the hospital and told them to pony up $100,000 within 24 hours or he would tell everyone the truth. On the eve of their wedding, Natalie and Jared learned that Starr and Cole were having Hope's body exhumed so they could find out the true cause of her death. Realizing that the truth was about to come out, they decided to elope and got a priest at St. James to perform the midnight ceremony. When Natalie and Jared returned to Llanfair, they caught Brody Lovett coming out the front door of the house and confronted him. Jessica came to his defense and admitted that they were seeing each other, although she didn't tell them the truth that Brody and Gigi had never slept together. All hell broke loose when Jessica realized Chloe had been kidnapped. Natalie and Jared, worried that Kyle might have kidnapped Chloe for ransom, told the family that he could have been behind it but didn't go into details at first. After Jessica and Brody left for the police station, where Kyle Lewis was being held, Natalie and Jared admitted to Viki, Clint and Charlie that the baby Jessica delivered had died and had been switched with Starr and Cole's baby. When Jessica and Chloe were reunited at the hospital, Bess emerged and escaped with Chloe before Jessica could learn that the baby wasn't hers. Natalie blamed herself for keeping the truth from Jessica, but Jared said they did what they thought was best and Charlie agreed. They then revealed to a delighted Charlie, Clint and Viki that they had gotten married. Jessica eventually re-emerged and returned the baby to Starr and Cole.

Gigi admitted to Natalie and Jared that her sister had forced her to break up with Rex to supposedly save their son, and she asked them to drop the charges they had filed against Kyle so she could find out the identity of Shane's real blood donor. Natalie and Jared dropped the charges, pressuring Kyle to reveal the name of the donor. Kyle claimed to have forgotten the donor's name but took Natalie and Jared to the clinic where the donor was. When they arrived, they discovered Natalie's grandmother Renee in the room where the donor supposedly had been. Renee said she was getting cosmetic surgery and asked Natalie and Jared not to say anything to anyone. Natalie and Jared then learned that the donor had died several months ago, and Kyle admitted that he had drawn extra blood and given it to Roxy. But when they arrived at Roxy's hair salon, they found Roxy on the floor and the blood gone, stolen by a nurse from the clinic where the donor had been. Rex eventually retrieved the blood from Stacy.

Natalie began to worry when Jessica claimed she was being stalked by someone who appeared to be Nash. At Buchanan Enterprises, Natalie and Jared received a DVD that had images of the night that Nash fell through the skylight and died. They gave the DVD to Brody, and they all agreed that the person who sent the DVD was the same person stalking Jessica. The police determined that the delivery of the DVD was done by someone who worked at the company. Natalie and Jared then got a second DVD, this time of the stalker saying he was going to get revenge on them for killing Nash, although the stalker's voice was distorted and his image was masked. As Natalie was visiting Jessica and Brody at the hospital, Jared was jumped from behind in his office. He then showed up at the hospital, bloodied and bruised, having driven there after fighting off the attacker. Jared claimed he didn't see the person's face or any identifying features, yet John McBain was suspicious of Jared's story and began questioning him as a suspect, rather than a victim, raising Natalie's ire. John found an image of the stalker on footage from David Vickers' reality TV show and showed it to Natalie and Jared, but neither said they recognized him. However, Jared was in contact with the stalker, who had been in prison with Jared. Jared got into an argument with the stalker over the phone and told Natalie that it was a coworker. A short time later, Natalie was shocked to discover Jared leaning over the stalker's bloody body on the patio outside Llanfair.

Jared claimed he didn't know the dead man, but when John McBain arrived he pulled out the man's cell phone and dialed the last number, which rang Jared's phone. Jared was arrested after financial transactions from Jared to the stalker, Wayne Landers, were discovered on his computer. Natalie refused to believe Jared was guilty, even after Jared admitted that he had been lying to her. Jared confessed to Natalie that he knew the stalker all along and had arranged for Wayne to stalk Jessica and even beat him up. Before Jared could explain further, he got a text message and left Natalie behind at Llanfair. Jared went to the Buchanan lodge, where he was surprised by the person he found there. When Natalie and John showed up at the lodge, they found a murdered Pamela Stuart, whose deceased brother was Jared's step-father. Jared was nowhere to be found, but John later found his wallet near Pamela's body.

Natalie followed Jared's trail to Nash's old vineyard in Napa Valley, Calif., where Jessica also arrived after getting a call from someone who sounded like Nash. While searching for Natalie, who had gone missing, Jessica came face to face with Jared, who admitted that he was the one who had called her. Jessica ran away from Jared and ran into an abandoned greenhouse, where she was horrified to discover her dead husband Nash's body. With Jared watching from outside, Jessica then located an unconscious Natalie inside a closet. After Natalie came to and saw Jared, she let Jared in the room and then embraced him. As Jared proclaimed his innocence, an all-too-familiar figure came out of the shadows to claim responsibility: Mitch Laurence! Mitch said he had faked his death years ago and was now back to rekindle his relationships with daughter Jessica and ex-wife Natalie. Jared was shocked to learn that Mitch was behind everything, and then Mitch revealed he had gotten Jared to participate in his evil plan by blackmailing him with the truth that Charlie had killed a man. As John stormed the scene, Mitch took out a gun and grabbed Natalie. He then threw Natalie toward John and fired his gun, hitting Jared in the chest. In the hospital, Jared confessed to his father that he had seen Charlie kill his stepfather while drunk. Jared had told Wayne Landers all about it while in jail, and Wayne later blackmailed him. Jared said he kept quiet about it because he didn't want to lose his dad after finally getting him back. As Natalie tended to Jared's injured body, Jared suddenly flat-lined. The doctor told a horrified Natalie that Jared was dead.